The Eastern Roman Empire had seven simultaneous emperors during the Middle Ages, between the years 1203 and 1204 AD. This was a record that the Byzantines set, living up to the most convoluted interpretation of their name and following the example of their Western counterparts, where similar situations occurred multiple times in antiquity. These instances demonstrated that, although the throne often became a ticking time bomb for most rulers, this rarely deterred others from attempting to seize it. Thus, events such as the Year of the Four Emperors in 68 AD, the Year of the Five Emperors in 193 AD, and the Year of the Six Emperors in 238 AD took place.

The first of these episodes resulted from the lack of an heir after Nero’s death, which sparked Rome’s first civil war since the one between Mark Antony and Octavian nearly four decades earlier. Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis who had led a rebellion against the emperor alongside Senator Gaius Julius Vindex, seized power. However, he was unable to maintain it for more than seven months. His repressive policies, coupled with the unpopularity he earned among the people and the troops due to his stinginess (a consequence of the state’s financial struggles), led the legions of Germania to acclaim another military leader, Aulus Vitellius, as his replacement.

Galba then appointed an heir who, however, was not well received by certain factions led by Marcus Salvius Otho, a frustrated aspirant to the position. Otho orchestrated a conspiracy by bribing the Praetorian Guard, which resulted in Galba’s assassination and Otho’s proclamation as emperor by the Senate.

six emperors year
Bust of Vitellius. Credit: Luis García / Wikimedia Commons

Great things were expected of him; however, he could not withstand Vitellius’s march on Rome with his troops. Defeated on the battlefield, Otho took his own life after reigning for barely three months.

Vitellius held power for eight months before he managed to anger everyone with his capricious, frivolous, and cruel behavior. This led the legions of the Near East to mutiny in favor of their general, Titus Flavius Vespasianus. A seasoned veteran, Vespasian entrusted his son Titus with concluding the suppression of the Jewish revolt while he marched toward Rome to seize power.

Indeed, as he advanced, legion after legion joined him, and Vitellius fell. On December 21, Vespasian brought that tumultuous period, which had begun on June 9, to a close.

six emperors year
The Roman Empire during the Year of the Four Emperors. Credit: Steerpike & ArdadN / Rowanwindwhistler / Wikimedia Commons

A new cycle began on December 31, 192 AD, with the assassination of Commodus and the proclamation of the praefectus urbi, Publius Helvius Pertinax, as his successor. However, Pertinax only lasted three months, plagued by ongoing conspiracies and financial hardship that prevented him from fulfilling the salary promises made to the Praetorians. It was they who ultimately killed him and then auctioned off the throne. The highest bidder, outpaying the deceased emperor’s father-in-law, Titus Flavius Sulpicianus, was the senator Didius Julianus.

His rule lasted sixty-six days, opposed by both the army and the populace. Within weeks, three provincial governors took up arms: Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus. The strongest of them, Severus, managed to enter Rome and have himself proclaimed emperor by the Senate in June 193 AD. He then ordered Julianus’s execution and subsequently defeated the rebellious Niger.

Albinus, who had supported Severus in hopes of becoming his heir, turned against him upon discovering that Severus had reserved the position for his own son, Caracalla. However, Albinus, too, was ultimately defeated.

six emperors year
Bust attributed to Pertinax. Credit: Codrin.B / Wikimedia Commons

Finally, in 238 AD, a historical tour de force took place: the Year of the Six Emperors. The broader context of the infamous Crisis of the Third Century—during which only Severus and Claudius II died of natural causes—led to half a dozen contenders vying for the imperial purple. This situation exemplified even more starkly than before the political and military anarchy into which Rome was plunging, amid civil wars, barbarian invasions, peasant revolts, epidemics, rising prices, economic depression, and the increasing power of the foederati.

It all began with Maximinus Thrax, a towering man of humble origins, the son of a Gothic farmer and an Alanic woman. After three years of rule, he had gained a reputation as a tyrant—whether real or exaggerated by opposition propaganda (due to his ancestry, his poor relations with the Senate and the nobility, or the fact that he never set foot in Rome). This led to a rebellion in North Africa led by the proconsul Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus (Gordian), whom the senators hastened to name emperor, seizing the opportunity while the incumbent was campaigning in Pannonia.

Gordian, a kind and well-liked man, never fully assumed the purple, as he took his own life twenty days later upon learning that his son—whom he had named co-emperor (since he himself was eighty years old) and who was traveling to Rome to assume power—was killed near Carthage by the governor of Numidia, who remained loyal to Maximinus.

six emperors year
The Roman Empire and its surroundings in 230 AD, shortly before Maximinus Thrax rose to power. Credit: Richard Ishida / Wikimedia Commons

Two senators were then appointed as replacements to confront Thrax, who was returning at full speed to crush the insurrection: Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus and Marcus Clodius Pupienus.

Both were also elderly, and what was worse, they were quite unpopular. Therefore, the Senate decided to add a Caesar who enjoyed both legitimacy and public favor to their ranks. Their choice was Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius, the grandson and nephew of the deceased Gordians. However, his selection posed an issue: he was only thirteen years old—hardly a match for Maximinus, whom chronicles attribute a height of over eight feet, making him the tallest ruler in history.

As he advanced, Thrax discovered that most of the empire was against him. He confirmed this fatally after his failed siege of Aquileia, when soldiers of the Legio II Parthica assassinated him and his son, whom he had named co-emperor, in their own tent.

six emperors year
Balbinus. Credit: George Shuklin / Wikimedia Commons

It was April 238 AD, and in just one month, four rulers had perished, which did not bode well for stability. In fact, when Pupienus returned to Rome carrying the severed heads of the deceased, he found the city in the grip of violent unrest, while Balbinus seemed powerless to contain it.

Their presence helped pacify the situation, but although the coins they minted depicted them with clasped hands as a sign of their joint rule, in reality, they distrusted each other and feared a coup from one another.

To prevent this, they planned separate campaigns: Pupienus against the Parthians and Balbinus against the Carpi of Dacia, each on his own. Unable to cooperate and increasingly suspicious of one another, their paranoia ultimately turned against them ninety-nine days into their reign.

six emperors year
Gordian III. Credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

In a brutal turn of events, on July 29, with Rome once again engulfed in chaos, the Praetorians stormed their meeting, captured them, and dragged them naked through the streets before torturing and killing them.

The Praetorians then deified the deceased Gordian I and II and recognized Gordian Pius (Gordian III) as the sole emperor. Despite being merely a puppet due to his youth, he ended the Year of the Six Emperors and remained on the throne for two years before falling in battle against the Persians and passing the mantle to his tutor and Praetorian Prefect, Philip the Arab.

Half a century later, Diocletian attempted to solve the problem of instability by expanding the already tested dyarchy into a tetrarchy that balanced power among its rulers—only for it to collapse the moment he abdicated. Ambition had always been, and would always remain, the stronger force.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on August 31, 2023: Cuando el Imperio Romano tuvo seis emperadores en un año

SOURCES

Vicente Picón y Antonio Cascón (eds.), Historia Augusta

Sergei Ivanovich Kovaliov, Historia de Roma

Adrian Goldsworthy, La caída del Imperio romano. El ocaso de Occidente

F. W. Walbank, La pavorosa revolución. La decadencia del Imperio Romano en Occidente

José Fernández Ubiña, La crisis del siglo III y el fin del mundo antiguo

Wikipedia, Año de los seis emperadores

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